Tim slowly opened his eyes, blinking a few times as he came to his senses. He moaned softly as he push off his blanket and sat up in his makeshift bed, gazing at his surroundings: four glass walls towered overhead, spanning the perimeter of his new bedroom — a rectangular aquarium. When Tim was born, the aquarium had been the home for a small family of fish; and when he was older, Tim used it to house his pet hamster, Lenny. Tim remembered several years before when Lenny used to run around his cage, spin in his hamster wheel, and meander through the plastic tunnels Tim had attached together for him. Then, after Lenny died, the family had sold off or given away most of the equipment—all except for the aquarium, that is, which was stored away in the laundry room, gathering dust and holding an assortment of miscellaneous items over the years.
Now, it was Tim‘s cage. He never would have thought in all the years of watching Lenny through the glass that he’d one day find himself trapped inside it, shrunken and helpless to the whims of his giant aunt. The entire week had been one, big nightmare….and it was now apparent the nightmare was far from over. From the moment he’d heard his mother lamenting the prior evening about the difficulties she’d been facing in analyzing the formula, Tim realized as he writhed within his confinement on the underside of Aunt Julia’s foot that there was a frightening possibility that it might take weeks, or even months for his mother to formulate a cure; and there was still the distinct possibility that she might never be able to cure him, leaving him stuck at an inch tall, and an unwilling foot pet for Aunt Julia for the rest of his miserable, little life.
Tim stood up, adjusted his toga, and walked the confines of his prison, peering out at the bedroom he’d once complained was too small for him; now, he was too small for it. He pressed his hands and nose against the glass, gazing longingly at his bed just across the gap from the dresser where his cage was situated, and reminisced about what it was like to be normal sized, wondering if honestly he’d ever be normal again.
Tim also couldn’t shake an overwhelming feeling of helplessness, how powerless he felt each time he unwillingly succumbed to his aunt’s whims over the past week, and how useless and insignificant he felt when he failed to get the Mrs. Peterson’s attention…
…Or McKenzie’s. Tim sighed brokenheartedly, turning and placing his back against the glass, sliding down into a sitting position. If only McKenzie could’ve spotted and rescued him from Aunt Julia’s clutches. For that matter, why couldn’t he have McKenzie looking after him during this nightmare instead of Aunt Julia? Sure, his mother wanted to keep his shrinking a secret and within the family, but SHE wasn’t the one suffering under Aunt Julia’s nasty feet, and given the choice between the two of them, McKenzie would’ve been his preferred guardian, even if she put him through the exact same torture. Of course, Tim wouldn’t have looked forward to being stepped on or taped to McKenzie’s foot, but then again, he also wouldn’t mind giving the giant girl a foot massage…or being stuffed between her breasts…or shoved inside her…
Tim quickly shook his head, snapping himself back to reality. He was starting to get a little turned on, and he didn’t want to admit to himself that being small might have certain advantages, even if he WERE under the care of someone different.
Tim had had enough. After spending practically the entire day before taped to the underside of Aunt Julia’s sweaty foot, and almost half the night worrying that he might an inch tall and at the mercy of his giant aunt for the rest of his life, he’d finally built up the courage to tell his mother about his treatment that week…the ENTIRE story—every embarrassing detail. He may have failed once before, and didn’t really get the chance to explain himself the prior night with Aunt Julia hovering so closely outside his door when his mother came in to say goodnight, but he affirmed he wasn’t going to fail again. All he needed was a moment alone before his mother left for work, and this time, he would MAKE her listen! He was done playing the meek, helpless toy; at this point, even if Aunt Julia did follow through with her threat and squash him for snitching, Tim didn’t care. At least then, his horrible, shrunken nightmare would be over.
One aspect of being small that Tim had discovered was that he had developed the ability to tell exactly who was walking outside his bedroom door, even when it was closed. It was usually his mother who was up and around first the past couple of mornings, and he could usually tell by the soft, slow steps she’d take past his room, obviously trying to be quiet. Aunt Julia, on the other hand, had loud, rather heavy stomps, and Tim honestly couldn’t say if that was how she normally walked, or if she was just exaggerating her steps on his behalf.
That morning, thankfully, it was his mother stepping up to and knocking on his bedroom door.
Tim was visibly anxious…
“This is it,” he said to himself. “No chickening out.”
“Morning, sweetheart,” Natalie greeted him as she entered the room, apparently freshly showered and already dressed for work, aside from the pink, fuzzy slippers she was wearing on her bare feet. She stood over the aquarium, staring affectionately at her tiny son with his back against one of the glass walls.
“How’d you sleep?” she asked.
Tim didn’t respond right away. He merely sighed and crossed his arms, averting his eyes as he tried to think of a response. Despite tossing and turning a majority of the night, worrying about his future as a foot toy, he actually hadn’t slept all that badly; of course, being confined inside your former pet’s cage certainly didn’t help matters.
“How do you think I slept, mom?!” Tim squeaked with incredulity. “You and Aunt Julia stuck me in this stupid aquarium all night!”
“Aw, honey,” Natalie sighed sympathetically, bending closer, “I know you’re not happy about this, but after your Aunt Julia and I talked it over, I really think it’s for the best. Now, we all know that you’ll be safe and out of harm’s way, and we don’t have to worry so much when you’re out of our sight.”
“Mom, please,” Tim begged, “I’m begging you…you can’t leave me in here! Aunt Julia—!”
“Sweetheart, I’m not discussing this with you any further,” Natalie interrupted him adamantly. “Your staying in there, and that’s that. Now, can I get you anything? Do you need to use the restroom, or some fresh clothes?”
“What I NEED is for you to do is just LISTEN to me, mom!” Tim replied smartly. “If you don’t, Aunt Julia’s gonna—!”
“Tim,” Natalie interrupted him again with a frustrated sigh, standing up straight, “look, I’m hoping this is only gonna be for a few more days, alright? In fact, once I get to work and check on my results, I’ll begin testing them right away. If there’s good news, I might even be able to get you back to normal before the weekend’s out, so just sit tight and be patient for a little while longer, okay?”
“Mom, would you please, just listen to me?!” Tim pleaded desperately. “You don’t understand. I-I won’t last a few more days. Aunt Julia’s been torturing me—!”
“Tim, I don’t wanna hear it!” Natalie dismissed him. “Now, I know this has been hard for you, but I’m working as fast as I can. You just need to be patient.
“Look, I’ll give your Aunt Julia a call with an update later on today, but for now, just stay put and keep out of trouble.” She continued as she started walking away. “Now, I will see you tonight, and we can talk everything over then, okay?”
“Mom, NO!” Tim squealed as he followed after his mother, heading to the side of the aquarium. “Please! You don’t understand! You can’t leave me with Aunt Julia again! She’s gonna SQUISH me! Mom, PLEASE! You have to let me out of here before it’s too late! MO-OM!”
Natalie ignored her son’s tiny squeaks, leaving him pounding desperately on the glass of his cage as she walked out of the bedroom, closing the door behind her.
——————————————————————————————————————
Julia opened her eyes and took a deep breath, grinning as she stretched her arms.
“Mm,” she moaned contently, pushing off the covers and sitting up in bed. “Today’s gonna be a good day. I wonder if I can get Tim to give me another foot massage today…
“…Like he honestly has a choice,” she chortled as she slid her legs off the bed and planted her feet on the carpet below…
Julia paused before standing up, taking a moment to admire how the carpet felt beneath her bare soles, the feeling of its fibers between her toes as she playfully scrunched and wiggled them about. It was a queer, yet pleasant feeling she’d honestly never paid much attention to before, but having a tiny nephew to play with the past week made her really appreciate how things felt under her feet and between her toes, and she affirmed right then and there that she’d never take that feeling for granted ever again.
Julia bit her lip eagerly as she walked out of the bedroom and headed down the hall towards the living room…
As she approached Tim’s bedroom door, she paused again. Julia leaned to her right and peered into the living room, making sure her sister was well out of earshot; then, she smiled slyly and began softly stomping back and forth on the carpet just outside Tim’s bedroom door:
“Boom, boom, boom…” she chuckled with each playful stomp. “Boy, my feet sure are stomp-y this morning. I sure hope my tiny, little nephew doesn’t try to get away from me again today. I’d hate to accidentally got stepped on by THESE feet this morning.”
Julia planted one last playful stomp directly in front of Tim’s door, chuckling maniacally as she continued down the hallway and through the living room.
“Yes, sir,” she said with a cheerful grin. “Today’s gonna be a VERY good day.”
As Julia headed into the kitchen, she found Natalie already dressed and sitting at the kitchen table, reading the morning paper and stirring some cream and sugar into her cup of coffee.
“Morning, Nat,” Julia said gleefully.
“Morning, Jules,” Natalie replied, taking note of her sister’s merry mood. “You’re awfully chipper this morning.”
“Am I?!” Julia interjected, feigning ignorance as she grabbed a mug from a nearby cabinet. “Must be because I slept pretty well last night.”
“Apparently,” Natalie acknowledged with a half smile. “You didn’t even stir when I got up this morning to shower.”
“Well, I’m a heavy sleeper,” Julia added, pouring herself a cup of coffee. “Plus, it’s Friday. Even in the summertime, us teachers still look forward to the weekend.”
“Yeah, I’ll bet,” Natalie chortled, taking a well-needed sip of coffee. “I won’t know if I’M gonna be looking forward to this weekend until I get to work.”
“So, today’s the big day, huh?” Julia sighed as she pulled out a chair and sat down at the table across from her sister.
Natalie shot Julia a rather incredulous look:
“Well, if by ‘big day’, you mean crossing my fingers and hoping that at least one of the mixtures I’m synthesizing might actually grow my shrunken son back to normal, then yes, Jules, today is a very ‘big day’.”
“Nat, relax,” Julian said defensively, “I wasn’t trying to make a joke…although, in retrospect, I guess it was kinda….’punny’.”
“Jules, would you get real?!” Natalie snarked irately.
“I’m sorry, sis,” Julia chortled. “But, seriously, I….just wanted to see if you were, you know…ready, or nervous, or something like that.”
“As ready as I’ll every be…” Natalie shrugged. “…and, yes, very nervous.”
“So, what’s the plan?”
“Well, the ‘plan’ is I’m going to test two of the mixtures I synthesized on the two rabbits I shrunk down, one on each; hopefully, one of them’ll grow their respective subject back to normal. If at least one of them does, I’ll shrink down a third rabbit with the leftover shrinking formula and retest the antidote to make sure I’m getting consistent results.”
“…What if neither of them work?” Julia inquired after a brief silence.
“Then, I’ve got one more I can try. I’m also gonna see if I can replicate the original shrinking formula in the meantime, just to make sure that I can make more of it if I need to.”
“How long until you know if one of them works?”
“Well, I should know right away. Should only take about 15 minutes or so for the formula to be metabolized. Then, I just wait and see if my test subjects regain all their height.”
“Whelp,” Julia said, raising her coffee cup. “Here’s hoping…”
“Yeah,” Natalie reciprocated, somewhat unenthusiastically. “For Tim’s sake, let’s just hope something works. He’s certainly NOT taken this whole shrinking thing well.”
“Well, can you blame him?!” Julia asserted. “Speaking of which, how is little guy this morning? Have you checked in on him yet?”
“I looked in on him after I got up and around; obviously, he’s not happy about the whole cage thing.”
“Trust me, Nat,” Julia replied. “It’s the best thing for him. Now, we don’t have to worry about him running loose through the house and accidentally getting stepped on.”
“Yeah, but…” Natalie replied, her voice trailing off a with a sigh, “…look, I know I initially agreed to this cage idea of yours, but I’m not sure I like the thought of my son being cooped up like some kind of pet.”
“Yeah, well, he’ll get over it,” Julia scoffed. “With all the trouble he’s gotten himself into over the past few days, I think we need to take some more drastic measures. Besides, I think it’ll also help fix his behavior.”
“Why?” Natalie inquired, shrugging. “What’s wrong with his behavior?”
“Well,” Julia explained, “for one thing, he doesn’t mind me when I tell him to do something. He needs to learn to do what I tell him to do the first time I tell him to do it. And secondly, he needs to learn to watch that little mouth of his: small or not, it’s no excuse for back-talking me.”
“Oh, come on, Jules,” Natalie replied dismissively, “Stop exaggerating! Tim’s behavior isn’t THAT bad! And even if it was, I think we should BOTH cut him a little slack, considering the situation.”
“Cutting him slack is one thing, sis,” Julia rebutted. “Letting him act out and mouth off to us is another.”
“Yeah, well…” Natalie acquiesced reluctantly, “look, just do me a favor: Don’t keep him in there all day, alright? I mean, I want my son to be safe, but I also I don’t want him feeling like a prisoner is own home.”
“Don’t worry, Nat,” Julia reassured her jokingly as she stood up from the table, “I’ll make sure he gets some time in the yard.”
“Not funny, sis,” Natalie snapped.
“OK, you’re right,” Julia replied, putting up her hands defensively, “I’m sorry. Anyway, I’m gonna go change out of this nightgown and put on my yoga pants. I’ll look in on Tim once I’m dressed.”
“Okay, but try not to be too loud,” Natalie insisted. “He had a rough day yesterday, so if he’s gone back to sleep, just let him be, alright?”
“Alright, sis, I’ll be quiet,” Julia replied as she headed out of the room.
——————————————————————————————————————
From the moment Julia had stomped past his bedroom door that morning, Tim had been nervously pacing back and forth along the long wall of his aquarium. Her entire performance left him trembling on his mattress, but it was the final stomp that truly rattled him.
He kept picturing himself on the floor in the middle of his living room, watching in horror as Aunt Julia’s giant feet stomped towards him as he desperately tried to escape. The image of her massive, wrinkled soles was burned into his mind, seeing them hovering ominously overhead right before they slowly came down on top of his tiny, cowering figure…
Tim gulped fearfully; he was trapped. He desperately needed to talk to his mother, but Tim just knew that if she didn’t come back to check on him before leaving for work that morning, the moment she was out of the house, Aunt Julia would make a beeline for his bedroom, and he’d be spending yet another day taped to her foot, or shoved into the back of her panties again, or…
“That’s it!” Tim affirmed out loud. “I don’t care what mom says: I’m not spending one more minute trapped in this stupid cage, waiting for Aunt Julia to come up with some new way to torture me. I’m getting the hell out of here!”
For Tim, unfortunately, getting the hell out of there meant somehow scaling the glass walls of the aquarium, then finding a way to climb back down, and then finding somewhere to hide and stay out of Julia’s clutches until his mom got back home…
“Aw, man,” Tim muttered dejectedly, shaking his head, “there’s gotta be better way!”
He immediately began pacing the interior perimeter of the aquarium, looking for a hole or some other weak point he could use as an escape hatch, but his cage seemed well-built and impenetrable; the only opening was the lack of a ceiling overhead. If he wanted out, Tim was going to have to climb.
“Great…” Tim said sarcastically, “…and how, the hell, am I supposed to scale THESE walls?!”
The tiny teenager looked desperately around his cage, trying to come up with an idea…
Tim made a beeline over to his sponge bed, sliding it over into the corner of the aquarium. Then, he headed around to the far end, slipped his hands underneath, and lifted with all his might…
He couldn’t believe how heavy the sponge was at his size, but the fear and adrenaline coursing through his veins was a welcome godsend; in no time, he’d managed to lift and tilt his bed all the way over, leaning it longways up the wall. Tim quickly scaled the sponge and seated himself on top. He’d still have a long climb ahead of him, and jumping was certainly out of the question, but it was a good start.
Next, Tim grabbed the Kleenex he’d been using as a blanket, folded it up, and draped it over his shoulder. Finally, he pushed his back into the corner of his cage, planted his bare foot against one the glass walls, then pushed himself up, following suit with his other foot against the adjacent wall…then back to his first foot…
Slowly but surely, Tim was sliding his body upwards…
“You’re doin’ good, Tim,” the tiny teenager kept saying to himself over and over again as he slowly inched his way up the glass walls of his prison, “just keep going…”
All the while, his mind was racing. Tim knew he’d be punished for escaping, but the thought of facing another day taped to Aunt Julia’s foot, or used as her sex toy… If it meant facing his mother’s—or even Aunt Julia’s—wrath, it was well worth the risk. He couldn’t take one more minute of torture.
Tim’s ascent, albeit productive, was slow going, and Tim had already slipped several times over the past few minutes, hampering his progress. The back of his toga allowed for easily sliding both up and down the glass, unfortunately, but the tiny teenager remained undeterred. Freedom was literally only a few inches over his head.
“You’re almost there, Tim. Just a little further…”
Once he was near enough to the top, Tim braced himself carefully, making sure he wouldn’t fall again, then removed the Kleenex from over his shoulder and tossed it up onto the rim of the aquarium. Finally, Tim took a deep breath to ready himself, then threw himself upwards until his hand could grab onto the rim of the cage. He frantically grabbed on with his other hand and pulled himself onto the top of the wall, laying partly slumped over the rim to recover and catch his breath.
Tim knew he couldn’t rest long, though; he needed to keep moving. He carefully pushed himself up into a sitting position, letting his legs dangle over the side of the wall; then, he began unfolding the Kleenex, letting it drape down the glass of the aquarium. His plan was to make a rope out of the tissue, tying one end into a loop and hooking it to the corner of the aquarium to repel down onto the dresser top, then make his way over to his nightstand and hide behind his alarm clock.
Tim had to work fast, but also knew he had to get it right the first time. There were no do-overs. A fall from this height onto the dresser, let alone the floor, would surely be instant death…
——————————————————————————————————————
Julia exited the kitchen and headed back through the living room. As she approached the entrance to the hallway, she slowed her pace, taking careful, quiet steps through the carpet, making sure the floor didn’t make some much a a tiny creak or groan as she slowly crept her way towards Tim’s bedroom door…
With only a few feet left, Julia stopped. She took one quick look back to make sure Natalie wasn’t behind her; then, she bit her lip, placed her feet together, and jumped…
Tim had just leaned forward to splay out the tissue before he started twisting it into a rope, when suddenly…
*BOOM*
Something huge impacted the floor just outside his bedroom. The shockwave rattled the entire dresser, aquarium and all. The tiny teenager yelped in shock, flailing his arms wildly to grab a hold of something, but it was already too late; he was quickly thrown from the rim of the aquarium, tissue in tow as he went careening past the dresser top and screaming all the way down towards the floor…
Julia could barely contain her chuckles after landing her jump on the carpet just outside Tim’s bedroom door, swearing she could hear her nephew’s tiny screams of terror. She pictured his tiny figure cowering in the corner of his cage when her feet hit the floor, smiling with sadistic glee as she continued down the hall to the master bedroom. If Tim HAD been sleeping, like Natalie had said, he was awake now, and as soon as Julia was dressed, she was coming back to say good morning…
Tim was noticeably shaken from the fall, yet still found the motivation to push himself up into a standing position. He gazed upwards at the dresser towering over his position on the floor; only then did he truly grasp just how far he had fallen. Luckily, the tissue Tim had been clinging to had acted as a makeshift cape which slowed his descent just enough to allow a somewhat soft, yet survivable landing on his bedroom carpet. It wasn’t exactly how he’d intended his escape to go, but for the moment, he was down from the top of the aquarium.
Unfortunately, Tim had wanted to stay on top of the dresser so he could make his way to the nightstand; with no feasible way to climb back up, he’d have to settle for finding a hiding spot at ground level.
But where was he supposed to hide: under the bed?! It might have been a good hiding place, but considering the prior day’s incident, it’d most certainly be the first place Aunt Julia would look for him once she discovered him missing, not to mention that despite her relative size, the clearance under Tim’s bed was still high enough for her to easily follow him under.
What about UNDER my nightstand, instead of on top? Tim contemplated. It’d definitely be dusty, and possibly had bugs lurking in the shadows, but the odds were slightly better than under the bed.
Under the dresser was also an option. The clearance was low enough that Aunt Julia would barely be able to fit her hand, let alone her whole arm, underneath it, but once again, there was a risk of dust and bugs.
Three possible options—none of them ideal.
“Note to self,” Tim affirmed aloud, sighing as he started off towards the nightstand, “if I ever get back to normal again, the first thing I’m doing is cleaning, vacuuming, and dusting under all my furniture!”
“Man, I just washed this!” Julia exclaimed after sniffing her nightgown. “I was hoping to get another night out of it.
“Oh well,” Julia shrugged as she casually tossed her nightgown onto the bed. She quickly slipped into a white yoga top and gray leggings, brushed herself down, then eagerly scurried back out of the bedroom and down the hall.
Tim had barely made it halfway to his nightstand when he heard a giant pair of footsteps booming towards his bedroom door…
“KNOCK, KNOCK,” Julia’s ominously booming voice called from outside the door. “TIME TO GET UP, TINY TIM.”
Tim’s blood ran cold; he needed to get out of the open. With only a moment’s hesitation, he immediately took off towards the underside of the dresser, the clearance just tall enough for him to duck underneath right before the bedroom door opened.
“Oh, Tim,” Julia called softly as she stepped into the room, a huge grin on her face as she quietly closing the door behind her. “Where are you, little guy? Are you trying to hide from your auntie?”
As Julia peered into the aquarium, however, her face slowly morphed from happiness to confusion: she didn’t see her tiny nephew anywhere inside his cage, only his sponge bed propped up against the side of the glass.
“What the…” Julia uttered to herself in confusion, her voice trailing off. “Where’d he go?”
“Tim?” she called out as she stepped around the dresser. “Where are y—?”
Julia stopped dead in her tracks; her voice immediately cut off. Something was out of place…
Tim watched anxiously from his hiding spot as his aunt’s giant, bare feet stomped across the carpet and around the corner of the dresser…
Then, they abruptly stopped in their tracks, and Tim immediately realized why: he’d left the tissue he’d used to escape lying in the middle of the carpet between his bed and the dresser, and could only look on nervously as the giant woman reached down to retrieve it.
“What is—?!” Julia uttered, bending down to snatch up a discarded tissue from the carpet. It took her a second to process why it was there, but a quick glance back inside the aquarium yielded the answer…
“Why you clever, little—!” she said with indignation, “So, you used your blanket as a parachute, huh?”
“Parachute…” Tim said to himself, smacking his forehead for being so dense. “…Why didn’t I think of that?!”
“Alright, you little bug!” Julia spat in frustration, dropping to her hands and knees. “Now, where are you?!”
She peered under the bed where she figured her tiny nephew would be hiding.
“You know better than to hide from me! Come out right now, or I swear your gonna get it!”
Not immediately spotting her nephew, Julia huffed in frustration and reached into her pocket to pull out her phone. Then, she clicked on the flashlight and pointed it under the bed to conduct a better search…
The moment Aunt Julia turned on her phone’s flashlight, Tim immediately slunk back into the shadows and ducked out of sight. As the tiny teenager watched his aunt’s search intensifying, he was thankful he’d chosen the dresser for cover as opposed to under the bed where Aunt Julia was now scouring the floor.
Unfortunately, Tim knew his cover was only temporary. Aunt Julia could easily spot him under the dresser if she should turned her head and shined her flashlight his way. He frantically scurried through the darkness to find better cover, but the area beneath the dresser was merely a large, open space, and the only semblance of cover he could find was the inside corner of the dresser’s right, front leg, just a few feet away from his aunt.
“Come out, come out, wherever you are,” Julia called out as she scoured the carpet under the bed. “You can’t hide forever, Tiny Tim, so unless you wanna get taped to my foot again, I’d suggest you show yourself!”
Unfortunately, there was still no sign of her tiny nephew.
Julia began crawling forward, expanding her search to the underside of the nightstand, her flashlight scanning the carpet intensely.
“Damn it, Tim!” Julia exclaimed irately, moving her flashlight to the space under the dresser. “I mean it. If you don’t come out right now, I’m gonna stomp you when I find you! Now, where are you?!”
Tim‘s little heart started beating even more frantically when Aunt Julia moved her flashlight to the underside of the dresser, scanning the dusty carpet for her prey; she shoved her huge hand as far into the crevice as she could, her long, slender fingers steamrolling over the carpet fibers as they slid along the floor.
The tiny teenager pushed his back into the corner, trying to flatten his body against the wood as much as possible.
The spotlight kept inching closer; Tim held his breath, trying to keep quiet and not give away his position.
The light crept even closer, passing literally an inch in front of his feet…
The light quickly retreated from sight; Tim exhaled quietly, grasping his chest, his heart still beating frantically from the close call.
The ground suddenly shook violently, and Tim nearly lost his balance. Julia’s knees boomed across the floor as her gigantic figure clambered around to the adjacent side of the dresser, now scanning the underside long ways down the carpet. Tim quickly switched his position to the adjacent wall of the dresser’s foot, pressing his back into the wood again.
The light crept even closer than before; then immediately shot over to the foot off to his left, nearest the wall.
A giant hand suddenly thrust itself under the dresser, feeling the inside corner the foot across from him.
Tim’s face was wracked with terror. He slowly slid his back down the wood and grasped his knees, tucking himself into a ball in the corner of his dresser foot.
Then, Aunt Julia’s giant hand quickly shot his direction.
Tim cringed and grit his teeth as it grasped the top of the dresser foot just over his head…
This is it! he thought with a terrified gulp. Aunt Julia’s got me!
“Ouch!” Julia exclaimed, yanking her hand out from under the dresser. “Damn splinters!”
She quickly stuck her middle finger in her mouth, sucking on the pad in an attempt to dull the pain.
“Damn it!” Julia huffed in frustration, standing up from the floor and picking up her phone. “Ugh! Tim, you stupid, little bug! I swear, when I find you, I’m gonna squash you!”
She frustratedly stomped her right foot onto the carpet next to the foot of the dresser, too flustered to even consider being mindful of where landed feet. Julia was certain she’d find Tim cowering in darkness beneath one of the pieces of furniture in the vicinity of his cage, but there was no sign of him. She began intensely scanning the room, contemplating where her tiny nephew might possibly be hiding.
Could he have made it to the closet? she wondered as she quickly stepped across the room and slid open Tim’s closet door.
“Ugh, this closet’s such a mess!” she exclaimed again in frustration, haphazardly tossing aside a pair of Tim’s shoes with no regard to the possibility that her act might have accidentally crushed her nephew had he actually been hiding in the closet. “I’m never gonna find him in here! And Natalie’s gonna kill me if anything happens to that little brat!”
Julia frustratedly stomped back across the room, dropping back down on her hands and knees to check under the bed again. She made one last pass with her flashlight over the carpet as she crawled around to the corner of the bed nearest the dresser, looking for even the slightest shred of evidence that her tiny nephew was, or had been there, still having no clue that he was literally hiding only a foot away under another piece of furniture.
Tim was getting tired of having to cover his ears and steady himself each time Aunt Julia stomped her foot or dropped her body onto the floor, and he consciously had to restrain himself from yelping and giving away his position when she stomped her foot right next to the the dresser foot where he was hiding. From his vantage point, he watched his giant aunt grow increasingly more frustrated as she stomped back and forth across the room, frantically scouring the floor for his whereabouts. If he had any qualms about staying hidden instead of coming out and revealing himself before, they had all but dissipated, fearing he’d be squashed for sure the moment Aunt Julia found him.
“Ugh, this is so stupid—!” Julia huffed in frustration as she rose to her feet again, inadvertently kicking up a cloud of dust in the process.
“That’s it, Tim! If you don’t come out RIGHT NOW, I’m gonna…I’m…A—
“…A-ACHOO!!”
Tim managed to brace himself and cover his ears just in time before his aunt’s roaring sneeze, the cacophony so loud that it would’ve burst his eardrums had he not had the foresight to protect them. The giant woman practically flung herself several inches into the air with her sternutation, her feet stomping back down onto the carpet with a thunderous boom that shook the whole floor so violently that it completely knocked Tim off his feet.
Julia froze; her eyes opened wide. She cringed and slowly lowered her gaze towards the carpet below her. She hadn’t expected her sneeze to be so severe, nor to land so hard on the floor after her involuntary jump. For the first time since she entered the Tim’s bedroom room, Julia was actually concerned about her nephew’s wellbeing, apprehensively checking her soles, hoping she hadn’t accidentally squashed Tim with her jump.
Thankfully, there was no sign of a tiny, squashed teenager under either foot, nor in the surrounding carpet.
Julia exhaled a small sigh of relief, carefully lowering her raised foot back down to the floor…
Then, a sly grin suddenly spread across Julia’s face as a deviously, playful thought popped into her head.
“A-choo!” Julia cried out as she faked a sneeze and jumped off the floor again, landing with a slight thud.
“A-choo…” she said again, repeating the process, this time jumping slightly forward and landing between the corners of the bed and the dresser. “A-choo…”
Julia chuckled callously, inhaling a playful gasp as she peered down at the floor.
“Oops…sorry,” she called down apathetically, giggling manically as she turned and headed out of Tim’s bedroom, faking one more sneeze and jumping before closing the door behind her.
Tim peeked out from his hiding spot behind the leg of his dresser once the sudden breeze from his door closing died down, heaving a sigh of relief that the giant woman was finally gone. The whole time Aunt Julia was sneezing and jumping around, Tim had been bracing against the inside walls of the dresser leg, covering his ears and trying to steady himself from the massive earthquakes.
“Missed me!” he squeaked out hubristically. He was thankful he hadn’t been out in the open when it happened; otherwise, Aunt Julia might have…
Tim’s demeanor suddenly changed, his mind just then processing what had transpired.
“What, the hell, am I SAYING?!” he gasped fearfully. “My own aunt just tried to SQUASH me!”
Tim knew Aunt Julia could literally come back any minute, and would be more determined than ever to find him. He contemplated staying under the dresser for the whole day, but how long could he realistically stay hidden? Besides, Aunt Julia was bound to come back and scour his bedroom from top to bottom; she was eventually going to find him.
Tim needed to get to his mom before she left for work. His very life depended on it!